--- title: "Academy Article" canonical_url: "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch" locale: en meta: "og:title": "Academy Article" --- [Go to home](https://academy.laioutr.com/en) - [Essentials apps](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/bereiche/essentials-apps) - [SEO and GEO](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/leitfaeden/seo-and-geo) - [SEO basics before launch](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch) # SEO basics before launch Before going live, every important page needs a meta title, a description and the right robots value, the organisation belongs in the structured data, and old URLs redirect to new ones. The team then checks robots.txt, sitemap and rich results on the live domain. ## Before you start
Plan
Any platform licence
Role
Editor for pages, admin for redirects
Duration
10 min
### Prerequisites - SEO essentials installed - Custom domain connected - List of old URLs for a relaunch Last reviewed on October 15, 2026 The most important SEO decisions happen before launch. Laioutr takes care of a lot: robots.txt, canonical and hreflang links, keeping staging environments out of the index and the basic Schema.org structure are generated automatically. What remains are content and decisions that only the team can make. ### What should be done before launch - Meta title and meta description for the home page, categories, landing pages and important content pages - noindex for pages without search value such as cart, checkout and customer account - Organisation data for Schema.org so that search engines recognise the company behind the site - Redirects for all old URLs when an existing site is replaced - Languages and domains correctly assigned to markets Editors maintain page SEO in Studio, while redirects and markets live in Cockpit. Laioutr frontends reach a median LCP of 1.2 s, which gives rankings a solid technical base. ## Step by step 1. 1 ### Step 1: Prioritise pages List the pages with the most search potential: home page, categories, landing pages, key content. 2. 2 ### Step 2: Maintain meta data In Studio, enter meta title and meta description in the **SEO** area of each page, for every language. 3. 3 ### Step 3: Set noindex Choose the robots value **noindex, nofollow** for cart, checkout, customer account and thank-you pages. 4. 4 ### Step 4: Add the organisation Have company name, logo, address and social profiles entered in the SEO essentials configuration, including per-market differences where there are several markets. 5. 5 ### Step 5: Import redirects For a relaunch, point all old URLs to their new targets under **Redirects** in Cockpit using **Import CSV**. 6. 6 ### Step 6: Check markets Check under **Translations** and **Markets** that every domain has the right language. 7. 7 ### Step 7: Test live After deployment, check robots.txt, the sitemap and a few pages with Google's Rich Results Test, and submit the sitemap in Search Console. ## Check the result On the live domain, /robots.txt does not block the whole site, /sitemap.xml contains the important pages, each page's source has title, description and canonical, and old URLs redirect with status 301. ## Frequently asked questions Does every page need its own meta title? For pages with search value, yes. Product detail and category pages generated from page types draw their content from the connected data source. What happens with the staging environment? Laioutr automatically excludes non-production environments from indexing. Nothing needs to be done. When should redirects be ready? Before switching the domain. Otherwise visitors and crawlers hit 404 pages and rankings are lost. ## Related - [Go-live checklist](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/go-live-checklist)10 min Before going live, five areas are checked: account, project, markets and languages; the tested app connection; published pages including legal pages; SEO basics and redirects; and finally deployment, custom domain and removing password protection. - [Set up redirects from the old site](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/set-up-redirects-from-old-site)8 min Redirects are maintained per project environment under Redirects in Cockpit, one by one or by CSV import. Permanent rules answer with 301, temporary ones with 302, and they apply after the next deployment. - [Sitemap, robots.txt and llms.txt](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/sitemap-robots-txt-llms-txt)5 min robots.txt controls what crawlers may visit, the sitemap lists every indexable page, and llms.txt points AI systems to the content. All three files sit at the root of the domain and follow the robots settings from Studio. - [Multilingual SEO and hreflang](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/multilingual-seo-hreflang)6 min Laioutr sets canonical, hreflang alternates, x-default, og:locale and the lang attribute on every page automatically. They are based on the languages under Translations, the domains under Markets and the translated page paths in Studio. - [Connect a custom domain](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/connect-a-custom-domain)6 min A custom domain is assigned to a market in Cockpit and linked to a language. After the DNS record is set at the domain provider and a deployment has run, Laioutr Cloud serves the storefront under that domain. ## Learn it in a lesson - [SEO fields and AI visibility](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/lektionen/frontend-manager-seo-and-ai-visibility)10 min - [SEO basics before launch](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/lektionen/go-live-seo-basics)7 min ## [SEO and GEO](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/leitfaeden/seo-and-geo) Search this guide 1. [SEO basics before launch](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch)10 min 2. [Set up redirects from the old site](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/set-up-redirects-from-old-site)8 min 3. [Sitemap, robots.txt and llms.txt](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/sitemap-robots-txt-llms-txt)5 min 4. [Structured data with Schema.org](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/structured-data-schema-org)6 min 5. [Multilingual SEO and hreflang](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/multilingual-seo-hreflang)6 min 6. [SEO and GEO essentials: search engines, AI search and redirects](https://academy.laioutr.com/en/apps/seo-geo-essentials-search-ai-search-redirects)9 min ## Structured Data ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/#website", "@type": "WebSite", "inLanguage": "en", "name": "Default", "url": "https://academy.laioutr.com/", "translationOfWork": { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/#website" } }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#webpage", "name": "Academy Article", "url": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch", "@type": [ "WebPage", "FAQPage" ], "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#breadcrumb" }, "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/#website" }, "mainEntity": [ { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#/schema/question/1" }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#/schema/question/2" }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#/schema/question/3" } ], "potentialAction": [ { "@type": "ReadAction", "target": [ "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch" ] } ] }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#breadcrumb", "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "name": "Home", "item": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en", "position": 1 }, { "@type": "ListItem", "name": "Essentials apps", "item": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/bereiche/essentials-apps", "position": 2 }, { "@type": "ListItem", "name": "SEO and GEO", "item": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/leitfaeden/seo-and-geo", "position": 3 }, { "@type": "ListItem", "name": "SEO basics before launch", "item": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch", "position": 4 } ] }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#/schema/question/1", "@type": "Question", "inLanguage": "en", "name": "Does every page need its own meta title?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "

For pages with search value, yes. Product detail and category pages generated from page types draw their content from the connected data source.

" } }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#/schema/question/2", "@type": "Question", "inLanguage": "en", "name": "What happens with the staging environment?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "

Laioutr automatically excludes non-production environments from indexing. Nothing needs to be done.

" } }, { "@id": "https://academy.laioutr.com/en/artikel/seo-basics-before-launch#/schema/question/3", "@type": "Question", "inLanguage": "en", "name": "When should redirects be ready?", "acceptedAnswer": { "@type": "Answer", "text": "

Before switching the domain. Otherwise visitors and crawlers hit 404 pages and rankings are lost.

" } } ] } ```